I couldn't go without a finish in September, could I? I finished this little bag last week, but it took me a little while to take a picture of it because it's already in use as a project bag when I'm 'on the go'. ;o)

I made my 'Poochie Bag' using The Happy Zombie Monika's free pattern. Fabrics used are from the 'Chocolat' collection by 3 Sisters for moda. Of course there's never a project without any hiccups (at least when I'm in charge of the rotary cutter - but you already guessed that, didn't you?). I managed to cut the rectangle from the wrong side of the fat quarter so I needed a fourth fq to have enough fabric for the rectangles...so be careful to cut from the right side of your fq if you're going to make your own Poochie Bag!

Well, my Choco Poochie and I are traveling west to the 2. Quiltfest in Soltau! I'm already so excited to meet Monika in person {well, we already talked so much on the phone that I feel I already know her ;o)} and to see Maike again. And I'm looking forward to Regina Grewe's workshop (it's my second workshop I ever attended, and the first one wasn't thrilling at all...but I believe this one will be great!).

Since last year when I got my first Schnibbles, my collection is grown bigger...without making any of these little gems. So I naturally couldn't resist when Sherri & Sinta invited to participate in their fun 'A year of Schnibbles' challenge. Each month they choose a pattern which we all try to sew. For us Europeans it's quite a thrill wether our orders make it in time...;o)

The next day I started cutting all pieces and well, I couldn't help myself but to arrange them neatly (do I have to worry about that???)On the third day of SchnibblesAm nächsten Abend kamen dann die gefühlten 1 Mio. Flying Geese dran. Ich bin immer noch nicht ganz zufrieden mit meinen Gänsen, trotz minutiösen Ausmessens (ich habe dafür auch Fotos gemacht, das Tutorial muss nur leider ein bisschen warten) sind sie eben nicht ganz perfekt.... Ich glaube, ich werde mir tatsächlich irgendwann das "Fit to be Geese" Lineal von Open Gate Quilts besorgen...The next evening I pieced those gazillion flying geese units (love them!). I'm still not entirely satisfied with them, even though I took care to measure, cut etc. them extremely accurate (I even made a picture tutorial - hope to have it finished soon). I really think about buying the "Fit to be Geese" ruler by Open Gate Quilts.On the fourth day of SchnibblesNaja, eigentlich hab ich das schon früher gemerkt, aber egal: von den blauen Stoffen gab es 2 Quadrate zu wenig, und bei genauerem Hinschauen konnte man sehen, das Carrie das 'Problem' dadurch gelöst hat, in dem sie die fehlenden Quadrate aus den Resten der anderen gepieced hat. Das hab ich dann auch gemacht, allerdings habe ich darauf geachtet, die gleichen Stoffe zusammenzunähen (jaja, 'Scrappy' ist eben nicht mein zweiter Name...)Jedenfalls konnte ich am Ende des Abends den ersten Block zusammennähen.O.K., I noticed it earlier, but anyway: the charm packs were two squares short of the blues and looking a bit closer at the pattern cover I discovered that Carrie made it like me: she pieced the two squares from the leftovers. Only exception: I chose to sew the same fabrics together...after all, my second name is still NOT 'scrappy' ;o).So at the end of the day I could sew together the first block.On the fifth day of Schnibbles{Na, noch jemand da? Keine Angst, ich werde das garantiert nicht jeden Monat in dieser Art zelebrieren, aber ich konnte einfach nicht widerstehen ;o)!}Endspurt! Ich habe dann die restlichen 8 Blöcke genäht und dann mit grr und hmpf schließlich das Top zusammen gesetzt. Warum grr und hmpf? Weil ich mal wieder schlauer sein wollte, und die Blöcke anders als in der Anleitung gebügelt habe. So waren die aufeinandertreffenden Nähte zum Teil in die gleiche Richtung gebügelt, was das exakte Zusammennähen natürlich ein bisschen erschwert hat...naja, lesson learned! Und es musste auch nur ein Fork Pin dran glauben ;o){Anyone still with me?? Never fear, I won't do that every month with the Schnibbles, but I just couldn't resist and it was so much fun making this quilt & thinking of a nice way to post it ;o)}Final Spurt! I made the remaining 8 blocks and then pieced together the top with some grrr and hmmpf. Why grr and hmpf you ask? Well, I wanted to be clever and ironed the seam allowances different from the instructions. Well, bad idea! I had several intersections with no interlocking ironed s. a. and it did cost me at least one fork pin to get the seams tolerably straight.

On the sixth day of SchnibblesAlles, was jetzt noch übrig blieb, war das Foto des fertigen Tops. Tadaaa!Ich wollte den Quilt tatsächlich gleich fertig stellen, aber als ich das Ganze 'sandwichen' wollte, fiel mir auf, dass der Rückseitenstoff des Kits zu knapp bemessen war (laut Anleitung sollten es 1 1/8 yd sein, geliefert wurden aber nur 1 yd, so dass ich für zwei Seiten weniger als 1/2" Überhang hätte). Das war ein kleiner Dämpfer für mich...also hab ich das Top erst mal zur Seite gelegt und überlege nun, wie ich die Rückseite stückeln werde...All what remained was to take a photo of the top. Tadaaa!I indeed wanted to quilt it right then but when I layered the quilt I noticed that the backing fabric included in the kit was only 1 yd (the pattern called for 1 1/8 yd) and I'll have to piece it if I want it to fit {it was only 3/4-1" larger - and less than half an inch for two sides are, at least for me, too short!}. That kind of dampened my enthusiasm, so I set the top aside and I'm now thinking of a nice way to piece the backing...

Anybody still out there? I know I've been absent for too long...and with every day not-blogging my bad conscience grew bigger and bigger... and there's so much I have to show you, and still not so much time to do it...so, regarding the catch-up-marathon, I'll stick with a wise advice on how to eat an elephant - piece by piece ;o).

There were some dear blogging friends who checked back on me to ask if I were o.k.! {I am & I was there was just life interfering with blogging ;o)} Thank you, gals! It's a good feeling to be missed...

Then, some days before *my* day, a very special package arrived in my home: a Bunny Hill box full of treasures. When Anne had a sale for her adorable 'Chelsea Manor' fabrics, I just couldn't resist any longer and had to order that gorgeous not-so little stack of fabrics. I already have some ideas for what to do with them. Then there was the giant ric rac in exactly the perfect shade of peach-y pink for the 'A Tisket, A Tasket BOM' quilt {on which I am terribly behind!}. It's so beautifully wrapped, I couldn't tear the package open yet...Some of you might know that Brigette found some gorgeous vintage spools and Anne sold them via the Bunny Hill website. When I ordered the fabrics I asked for keeping the order back until the spools were listed so I could get some of them. Well, she didn't wait, but put two of them in my box {she said she couldn't help herself}! Thank you, Anne! I love them & it was a great pre-birthday present!The bunny just sneaked into the picture, it couldn't let the fabric bunnies stealing all the show!

To be eligible to the prize, a copy of Tone Finnanger's "Sew Pretty Homestyle" and a little pink strawberry, you have to leave a comment on this post, telling me your name, which quilting book you love most and why, and what you love about the 'Tilda style'. Make sure that your e-mail address is included in your comment so that I can contact you in case you're the lucky one!

So, here's mine:

I'm Julia and my most favourite quilting book currently is "Quilts from the Henry Ford". I love it because of the variety of beautiful antique quilts, especially the two colour quilts and red-green quilts {btw, are there some books about antique quilts you can recommend???}.I love all things Tilda because of the soft, fresh feeling those small things give you - the roses in "Sew Pretty Homestyle" are one of my favourite items, but I think I won't make any more of them in the near future - my fingers are still protesting just by the thought of it ;o).